Moti reappears in Solomons court

HONIARA - The controversial Australian lawyer and suspected child sex offender at the centre of a damaging diplomatic row between Canberra and the Solomon Islands has reappeared in court.

Julian Moti appeared in the Honiara Magistrates Court this morning for mention but told reporters outside court he had no comment on the furore surrounding his escape from extradition to Australia to face child sex charges.

Solomons Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare wants Moti as his attorney-general but his friend and adviser is on bail facing illegal entry charges after arriving in the Solomons on October 10 on a clandestine PNG military flight.

An associate of Moti, Sogavare's nephew Robson Djokovic who has Australian convictions for fraud, burglary and drug offences, also appeared for mention today on charges of assisting Moti in his escape from PNG.

He told reporters that all questions over the Moti case would eventually be answered in court.

When asked if Moti might still become attorney-general, Djokovic said that was for the government to answer.

In court, Public Solicitor Ken Averre, acting for Moti, was granted a hearing this Friday to apply for the return of Moti's belongings seized by police, understood to include a laptop computer and a mobile phone.

On Friday, a police raid on Sogavare's offices involving assisting Australian police further inflamed the row between Canberra and Sogavare who labelled it provocative and unnecessary.

Police seized a fax machine thought to have sent a purported passport exemption order to PNG for Moti on the day he flew out.

Solomons Immigration Minister Peter Shanel has been charged with perverting the course of justice and lying to the police commissioner after allegedly denying all knowledge of the order on the day Moti arrived.

Sogavare is in Fiji for the Pacific Islands Forum meeting where PNG Prime Minister Michael Somare has also slammed Australia over Friday's police raid, saying the sovereignty of Pacific nations had to be respected.

Moti is wanted by Australian authorities over alleged sex offences against a 13-year-old girl in Vanuatu in 1997.

- AAP